What hinders us from enjoying peace of conscience?
1. There is a want of simplicity and cordiality in our reception of the Gospel, the good news Jesus Christ brings to us concerning God. When we read the Gospels and see how Jesus moved among men, with so much gentleness and grace, we think that it would be really easy to accept Him as our Master and Lord could we but look in His face and feel the pressure of His hand. We are often impatient with those who misunderstood Him, and angry with those who resisted Him. Had we been there we would have treated Him differently. We would have gone, not like Nicodemus, by night to unburden our hearts before Him, but would have run to Him any day, to cast the care of our souls upon Him, with the absolute assurance that He would speedily and effectively give us rest. His kind face would be an encouragement, His sweet voice would be a benediction, His loving touch would be an inspiration. Were Jesus here in person it would be so easy to trust and not be afraid.
Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, describes how two went on the tumbril to the guillotine, one of them a young sempstress whom the rage of that awful reign of terror was sacrificing to glut its thirst for blood, and the other a man who by stratagem had succeeded in putting himself vicariously in the place of another. “If I ride with you, Citizen Evremond,” said the girl, “will you let me take your hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will give me courage.” She passed to that dreadful death, holding the stranger’s hand, with no sign of fear. Could we but feel the pressure of Jesus’ hand, sorrow or sin or death would have no dominion over us. But He is dead. There is no Christ in the world today. There are Christians, but no Christ. There are churches, but no Jesus.
Why not trust the word of Jesus and make the venture of faith—Lord, I believe Thee. Lean hard upon His unspeakable mercy and goodness, whatever our guilt and whatever our weakness, and refuse to give any entertainment to the doubt which would unsettle our faith or the temptations which would turn us away from the conduct which naturally follows this belief.
2. We often fail to possess the peace of conscience for lack of a definite surrender to Christ. In the title of Christ as Lord or Master we are reminded of our consecration. Notice, it is not merely the “God of Peace,” but the “Lord of Peace,” the One who gives peace because He is Lord. It is in submission to Him as our Lord that we find and enjoy this peace.
The religious soldier and the religious sailor are generally happy Christians for this reason, it may be, among others, that they have transferred to God’s service the habit of unquestioning, prompt, ready obedience, which was taught them in their professions. For them there is no speculating about difficulties; there is none of that discursing into the whole world of motives which so often, in men trained to think rather than to act, disconcerts and saddens the whole life. Theirs is a life of action, and what is peace but this: “If a man love me he will keep my commandments,” and, “I will manifest myself to him?” [Note: F. W. Robertson, Tice Human Race, 315.]
3. We are too anxious to keep ourselves instead of trusting to Christ to keep us. Some men, by insisting upon the inward evidences of adoption as the title of our inheritance, succeed unintentionally in making the heart of the righteous sad, whom God hath not made sad. Others are continually probing and prying into their own hearts, and looking into themselves, when they had far better be looking out of themselves, and to Christ. For it is Christ who saves us and not we ourselves. No pious feelings or emotions, no sense of peace and reconciliation, can give us a title to acceptance with God, who pardons and justifies us for the merits of Christ, simply embraced and relied upon by a faithful, trusting and loving heart.
Let our minds dwell on the power of Christ to keep His own. This power is and must be absolute and unconditioned, infinite and unlimited. “All authority,” He said, “hath been given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Mat_28:18). Nothing less than universal sovereignty is expressed in this solemn claim. He is Lord of all. Every kind and form of force is subject to His rule, as is also every sphere in which such force can act. Moreover, we recall that the claim was made after His resurrection, in which He was “declared to be the Son of God with power” (Rom_1:4), and in connection therefore with the death He died for all men. Tremendous and all-embracing as are the words, they cannot be considered apart from what He said on other occasions concerning Himself, nor, further, from what He proved Himself to be during and since His life on earth. There is indeed no reason why we should doubt their veracity, excepting—which is no reason—that we find it hard at times to reconcile their claims with the facts of experience.
There has been no man in modern times who enjoyed more of the peace of God than that man who was martyred at Khartoum —General Gordon. He never knew fear; he never hesitated in presence of the most terrible dangers. He was like one wrapped round and bathed in the mighty protecting love of God; yet all his life was spent in warfare. Wherever he saw wrong done, iniquity, oppression, cruelty, misgovernment, there he hurried to find his battle-field, to strike for God and the right. Someone has told the story of his life in the words, “One man against fearful odds, but with God always on his side.” That was the secret of his wonderful peace. It came to him because the sword of the Spirit was in his hands, and around him the armour of truth and light. [Note: J. G. Greenhough, The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, 236.]
